I traded my Viking in for the next model up today. The foot pedal was too twitchy and I was either sewing at 50mph or not at all. The next model up has a speed control and wasn't much more expensive. It also has a needle up and down feature that will make my life a bit easier. It will also make doing a backstitch WAY easier for me. My mother in law gave me a get this... a 1930's Pfaff Model 16. well, the only reference to it I could find on the Internet said it was from the 30's but my M-I-L thinks it's 43 years old... It's only sews a straight stitch and I used it to make a circular canvas bag for my Circoflex... worked ok but needs some adjustment... It does have this very cool torpedo like bobbin.

It's no use getting too detailed because you wont see the details in the sky.

If you look in the album of member's kites, you'll see that Daffy works much better than the kite flying snowman. To give a sense of scale, the eyes on the snowman are probably about 1" wide.

I have one kid who likes to fly kites and one who doesn't. At the park, some pre-schoolers spend 2 minutes flying a sled, and a few will spend 30 minutes or more. Many like to run around dragging the kite along the ground for most of the time. Most probably max out around 10 minutes. It varies a lot.
I've also seen 5 year olds doing tricks with dualies.

Pre-schoolers often like making a kite and scribbling on it with markers, choosing the color of the tail. Then they fly it for a few minutes and are done.
This is the kite instructions I use once in a while out at the park. It's also the kite I showed how to make on the morning news once (that was a nerve wracking experience).

A couple of things... trading in my Viking Emerald 116 for the Emerald 118 was the best thing I could have ever done. Speed control, a better foot pedal and automatic needle up and needle down was a life saver for doing this. Hopefully, after this 1st one, I will get faster at all this kite making stuff. This took a while because no matter how much stuff you read on the internet, doing it is far different than reading about it!

Anyway, I started with this
[albumimg]300[/albumimg]

And ended up with this:
[albumimg]298[/albumimg]

In between, I had all this going on:
[albumimg]293[/albumimg][albumimg]294[/albumimg][albumimg]295[/albumimg][albumimg]296[/albumimg][albumimg]297[/albumimg][albumimg]299[/albumimg]

I put the yellow border on there for 2 reasons, 1, to punch it out a bit as the colors just seemed to blend in to the red background and 2, because I have a LOT of this yellow. In the end, I could probably have gotten away without it but hindsight is 20/20.

Chris wrote:Man, that looks GREAT!!! How did you transfer the image to the sail? And what did you use to hold everything in place while you sewed? That design will look awesome in the sky!

Looking forward to seeing more kites from you!

I'm humbled... thank you..

I just drew the image on the yellow ripstop with a 'B' pencil. There are easier ways... had I an overhead projector, I would have use that and just marked the angles and then a straight edge to connect them up. In the mean time, I drew the image to scale in fireworks and turned on the grid to give me inch marks. I then put all of my mechanical drafting skills to work and drew it up. After that, I used a temporary fabric adhesive (sulky KK 2000) to stick everything together.... won't be doing that again as that stuff is not only expensive but it's crap... anyone have a better idea, I'm all over it.

I'm staying away from hot cutting and tacking anything at this point because I just don't have the surface for it and no confidence that I won't melt my fabric into a crispy ball.

The only thing I am not happy with is the black material as it's softer than the other material... but then again, this is a learning experience for now. If it blows out, oh well.

I'll be sewing up the rest of it tomorrow and will post some pictures...

Babbman,
really nice work! Is the width of the yellow the width of your zig-zag stitch?

Some folks use 3M Spray Mount Artists Adhesive. Spray it on, let it dry a bit so that's it's tacky but not too sticky, then put the fabric together.
Use a little goo-gone to get rid of any adhesive when you're done sewing.

Try it on a test piece first, it gums up the needle on my machine. But most things gum up my machine

Mike wrote:Babbman,really nice work! Is the width of the yellow the width of your zig-zag stitch?

Some folks use 3M Spray Mount Artists Adhesive. Spray it on, let it dry a bit so that's it's tacky but not too sticky, then put the fabric together.Use a little goo-gone to get rid of any adhesive when you're done sewing.

Try it on a test piece first, it gums up the needle on my machine. But most things gum up my machine

Very good job. It will be cool to see that kite in the sky.

Can't wait to see your daughter's kite.

I wish I had a wide zigzag like that... it's as wide and a little wider... enough so that I could get my scissors close but not right up against it. I was afraid to get too close. I do have a triple zz but like you, I'm not all that happy with it. Maybe some adjustments will make it work but I really just wanted to get something made and see what happens.

I've sewn through sail tape and all of this adhesive crap and no gumming of the needle so far. But, my rotary cutter gets gummed up from the sail tape...

I'll have to find an overhead projector before doing up my Miss Dolly Rok... she has rectangular hair...lol

The only bad thing about the way I did this is that there is not good way to erase the guidelines I drew.

I'm also going to have to decide if the yellow will look good or not int he sky. I can mount the main sail either way right now... I'm going to defer to the opinion of those who know kites best. Yellow in front or not...

Mike wrote:I tape my kites against the window and then look at it from as far away as I can to decide on designs.The closeups show a nice sewing job. Give yourself a pat on the back.

Thanks Mike. As I said, having a sewing machine that works itself is a big help. I still have a LOT to learn.

As for patting myself on the back? My arms are too short and my kite bag too empty. If there is any credit to be given it's to those in this group who's talent for kite making is proven and those who abilities are growing. That is what I have to strive to achieve and keep up with. Part of my motivation is creation and the other part is making sure that when you guys see what I come up with that you don't snicker...

Perfection in Motion !!!!
When I said "we know you could do it" I didn't know "how good you could do it"!!!
You are a real pro. that makes me think that my next kite, it's got to be done well, and better than my previous.
[smiley smilie=3 fontcolor=000000 shadowcolor=000000 shieldshadow=0]Bravo, Bravo, Bravo.[/smiley]

(Festivities are finally all done here, feels good to be getting things back to normal!)

The Rok looks great! I like those geometric puzzle images. You're sewing is fantastic, too! Very impressive.

I used glass rods on the Splat with internal ferrels. I've been happy with it and haven't busted any rods (knock wood). Since I'm often off messing with a messanger when my roks are up and staked, they have taken some good nose dives.

Also, layering the fabrics lightest to darkest with the darkest on the front of the kite, gives cleaner lines in the applique. The lighter colors behind the dark, make for less shadows and a cleaner image. The power kite that's in progress now didn't follow this loose rule. It has red outlines, like you're yellow. I'm beginning to like it. By default the image on the back is outlined in black and the image on that side looks alot smaller then the red outline on the front. It's been interesting to compare the two images. I'm interested in seeing what the yellow looks like in the sky.

Because certain setups will destablize a rok, the rule for our kids is they have to be supervised/assisted to fly our 6' rok. Our 10 year old can handle the setup and delay it causes, and can handle the pull in moderate winds. The younger kids have tried holding it, but don't care to fly it long term. Mostly the younger ones enjoy the kites they can get up and down on their own. JJ made a miniature pilot to match his from MAKR last year. That probably saw the most air time of all the kids kites this year. Daddy gets his pilot out and they can't resist flying the little one too.

Last edited by Draftnik on Tue, Jan 02 2007, 10:58 AM, edited 1 time in total.

Forgot to mention. I use and love kids washable glue sticks for sticking fabric together for applique. No overspray, no fumes, and the sticks fit in my supply box better then a spray bottle. The only trick is to let it sit for a few minutes to cure. Water gets it off. Using it sparingly, and way from the sewing lines, makes it easier to back cut.

thanks... I'm just learning though... most of the lines are straight which made this easy..

Too bad that after I designed and started working on it, Chris pointed me over to the kitebuilders forums where I saw a guy had done the same design on a smaller Rok and with different colors... oh well...

I've been trying different things to hold material together with washable glue sticks in the mix also. I wasn't sure how well it would work on the Rok but after going through the process of a spray, I will be exclusively using glue sticks. For all of my long seams, I have been using sailmakers tape since someone gave me a free roll of it. It has it's pluses and minuses also....

as for my colors, I only did the yellow on top because using black it would have been strange looking since black was a part of the design. I have a ton of yellow to work with so I thought it would work best... we shall see

Hopefully, all the rest of my supplies will show up this week so I can attempt to fly it next weekend...

Any hints/tips on sewing the hem up? This is the part I am most fuzzy on... I've been going back and forth on just cutting it down to size and using bias tape or a strip of black ripstop vs. all the folding, etc. What have you guys been doing to get a good crease that holds as you feed the edge through the sewing machine?

And finally, I tried using my triple zigzag for sewing the sail pieces together. It actually worked very well.

I use Engval's method. It takes some time, on the front end, but it helps me of the hack sewing skills sect.

I like 3/8" hems, modify this to preference. This is a double rolled hem. Basically, because ripstop holds creases well, I fold and finger press, it all into shape before sewing.

Measure in 3/4" from the outside edge and use pencil and rule to draw the lines around the perimeter you have to hem, on the *face* of the kite. Next, crease the fabric on the line, folding the full 3/4" single hem, to the back of the kite. Once that's all single folded, go around again, and tuck the 3/8" (half of 3/4") into the 1st crease and crease in the double roll. Now it's ready to sew. (Easier to do then to explain!) Water will remove the pencil lines.

Taking the time to dog ear the corners and mitre them with creases, before sewing helps too. Not sure I can explain that any better then String Driver over on kitebuilder did.